The Western Denmark Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Registry: A Review and Validation Study.

Purpose: Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) procedures from single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography imaging have been registered in the Western Denmark Heart Registry (WDHR) since 2017 as a sub-registry (WDHR-MPI). The aim was to review the content, quality, and research potential of the WDHR-MPI and assess the completeness and validity of its key variables.

Patients and methods: Using the Danish National Patient Registry (DNPR) as a reference, we calculated the completeness of procedure registration as the proportion of procedures registered in the WDHR-MPI from 2017 to 2021. We defined completeness of variable registration as the proportion of non-missing values for a given variable and examined it for 38 key variables. We assessed validity by estimating the positive predictive values (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for 26 selected key variables using corresponding extracted information from 300 randomly selected patient records.

Results: We identified 19,084 procedures in 17,871 patients from all seven cardiac centers performing nuclear cardiology procedures in the WDHR uptake area. The registry accumulated 4000-6000 procedures each year from 2019 to 2021. The overall completeness of procedure registration was 72% (95% CI 72-73), increasing from 14% (95% CI 13-15) in 2017 to 98% (95% CI 98-98) in 2021. The mean completeness of variable registration was 89%. The validity of entered data was high, with an overall PPV for the selected key variables of 95% (95% CI 94-95) and NPV of 94% (95% CI 93-96).

Conclusion: The WDHR-MPI is one of the largest systematic MPI cohorts. The overall high completeness and validity of the data support its potential for cardio-epidemiological research.